Midnight Illusions
by xAkiraxTenshiix
Summary: Sometimes, moving on to make a new life is the best choice. Sometimes, moving on is easy. Other times, its not easy to let the past just die. No matter how much we want to hold on, the past is just an illusion. Onesided OCxIchimaru. Eventual UkitakexOC.
1. Running From HeartBreak

**Welcome back, my faithful readers! I have returned long enough to be able to give you the start of a new story! I am still unsure as to where some of the others will go, but the ideas are starting to flow again. Have no fear, I'll be working on my stories when I get the chance. As I was pondering my other plots, it occurred to me that I could take a different spin upon my tale "Things Aren't Always What They Seem." So, this is an alternate version which takes place right before the first time jump in my Ichimaru story. Thoughts will be in italics!**

Akira Shinobu sighed as she left her captain's office. Once again she had been ignored by the man she loved. Her heart was breaking, and there seemed to be no end to the pain. She walked slowly back to her room and throught about her options. At the moment, she had told no one about her inner turmoil.

Akira wasn't sure who she could tell, after all the reactions she would get from any of her friends would be less than positive. Rukia, who Akira cared about like a little sister, was terrified of Gin Ichimaru and would ask if her friend had lost her mind. Matsumoto was out, since it was common knowledge that the buxom blond had feelings for Gin. Hinamori and Nanao had little more luck in the romance department than she did. Her only other source of advice would be from one of the guys that made up her friend list, but that would be worse than flirting with disaster.

She entered her room and looked around. The longer she hid her feelings, the more she felt like the third division was a cage. She knew that she needed something to change or that she would break, but she wasn't sure what to do. Sitting on her bed and letting her blond hair obscure the tears falling from her eyes, she came to a decision.

The only light she could see was to leave this division and hope that she would forget about him. Had it been any other man, she might have had no worries in addressing him about her feelings, but a third seat falling in love with their captain is not an easy subject to bring up.

The next morning, she didn't bother to speak with her captain as she normally had done. Instead, she went to speak with her lieutenant. It was time that she transfered out and she really didn't care where she went. She knocked on Kira's door and he opened it confused, only then did she notice that it was 5 in the morning.

"Can I talk to you... about something personal?" She asked.

"Yeah, come on in," the lieutenant yawned.

Once the door was shut, Akira spoke her mind. "I need to transfer out of here. I just can't take it any longer."

"What brought this on? You seemed pretty happy the other day."

"Well... Kira... what I'm going to say... has to remain a secret, ok?" Akira's voice faultered.

Kira seemed confused, but nodded. "Alright."

"I... I... I need to get away from Captain Ichimaru."

"What did he do?"

"He... didn't do anything. He doesn't even know I exist. And... I've fallen in love with him. I can't take it. I'm going to go crazy if this goes on much longer." The third seat hung her head. She flinched as she felt an arm around her shoulders.

"I'll see if I can find something for you... for right now, just give your paper work to me. I'll take it to him instead."

"Kira, you are the best!" Akira hugged the lieutenant. "Thank you."

Not long after this, she was approached by Captain Ukitake. He asked her if she would like to be his lieutenant. She had jumped at the opporitunity. Before she moved her things, she dropped by to see Kira and thanked him.

Happily, she had left her broken heart behind and she had been trying to run from her foolish crush. The day she had entered the thirteenth, she had vowed never to allow herself to go back. Her duties weren't much like what she had expected, but she was content for the first time in her life. Akira had become quite loyal to her new Captain. Ukitake was a sweet man and one she respected greatly. Recently, she had become aware of the fact that she would willingly give up her life for him- something she had never expected to feel.


	2. Start of a New Life

**Chapter two!!!!!!! Well, here you go! I am so proud of myself that I actually managed to write the second chapter so quickly!**

Akira sighed as she finished moving her things from the third division into her new room. Now, it was time to find a home for her possessions. There wasn't much to unpack, she thought as she removed her most prized possessions onto a shelf. Akira had been to the human world every chance that she had for a vacation and she had always brought back new books. In fact, it had taken her longer to move her books than it had anything else. She smiled at the thought as she put the last book in place.

Next the lieutenant turned to remove her small collection of clothes from their boxes into the new closet. For the most part, she didn't really have much in the way of nice clothes. Most of the things that she wore were simply to be worn while she worked or in her few moments of relaxation. Except for her one silver kimono, she really didn't care much for dress clothes. It wasn't as if she had ever had a chance to really use them.

The lieutenant looked around at the almost barren room- even with the few things that she had owned, it looked as if no one actually lived here. _Maybe it is time for me to find a hobby or something... _With a yawn, Akira looked at the time. _Wow, its later than I had thought. Midnight already. I wonder if anyone else is still up... or sober._ As she stretched to leave her new room, she picked up Mayonaka. Something told her that she might have need of her zanpakuto before she returned. _Worse comes to worse, I'll always have someone to talk to with her around._

Akira left her division unsure of where she felt like wandering. Much of her time in the 3rd had been taken up by trying to do anything that her captain might have wanted- including just hanging around in her office where she could easliy feel his spiritual pressure. Now that she was trying to make sure that she wouldn't go back, she wasn't sure what to do with her free time. _I wonder what Matsumoto is up to... wait, its Friday night, that means she's out drinking with the guys. Damn. That in itself is unhelpful. Who else could I go and talk to... _Sadly, Akira found herself drawing a blank as to who wouldn't be busy tonight. _I really need to find something to keep me entertained._

As she wandered, she really wasn't paying any attention to where she was going. That is, until she felt her former captain's spiritual pressure. In that moment, Akira made a fateful decision- she ran and she didn't stop until she could no longer feel his pressence. When she finally stopped, she was in a part of the Sereitei that she had never been to before. However, that said, she found it to be a beautiful place, under the light of the full moon. _Sakura trees... where the hell am I?_ After a minute of wondering about what she had stumbled upon, she realized something more important. She was lost.

"Damn it, why does this always seem to happen to me?" Akira shouted, furious at herself for getting lost in her moment of foolish fear.

"Why did you get lost? Well, that's what happens when you never leave your division and then you run around without paying any attention to where you are going." Said a soft gentle voice that Akira immediately recognized as Mayonaka's.

"That's really helpful, Mayonaka. Ya know that?" The lieutenant sighed as she sat down under one of the Sakura trees. _Maybe it would have been better for me to just have stayed in my room and fell asleep._

"Of course. What else do you think I'm here for?"

"Wonderful. Do you have any idea where we are?" _Why am I even bothering to ask? Mayonaka wouldn't tell me just because she likes playing guessing games when we haven't been anywhere for a while._

"Not a clue!!!" Somehow, Akira was not surprised at how happy her zanpakuto was.

"Just fucking great. So now what?"

"Well.... we could train for a bit! I'd like that! You rarely play with me anymore."

_Only my zanpakuto would have a split personality where one of them was like a five year old and the other was a sadist. I might as well go along with her for a little while, maybe then she'll give up our location... or I'll figure it out when the sun rises in a few hours._ "Alright, Mayonaka. Sounds like fun."

For the next few hours, Akira trained with her sadistic zanpakuto. Not that Akira would complain, these little training sessions always got her mind off of her problems. After all, it is hard to worry about life's little problems when someone is trying to kill you. By the time that the sun had risen, Akira had managed to learn a new ablity of her bankai. Mayonaka seemed pleased, and Akira was finally able to find her way back to her division.

"Oi, Akira! Do you remember how to find that sakura grove later?" Mayonaka asked as Akira treked into her room for a quick shower.

"I think so, why?" The lieutenant began to remove her dirty clothes before she realized that there was someone at her door. "Hold onto that thought, ok?"

"We should go back there every night!" Her zanpakuto said before being silent once more. Akira shook her head, Mayonaka was such an interesting partner. _I should have known that she wouldn't shut up before she had said what she wanted... she never does._

Grabbing a robe, Akira opened her door. Standing outside were her two third seats. The lieutenant raised an eyebrow as the two spoke up. "Captain Ukitake wants to see you!" shouted Kiyone Kotetsu, the female third seat.

"Immediately, or may I take my shower first?"

This seemed to embarass both of the third seats. "We aren't sure."

Akira shook her head. "Next time you might want to find out how immediate people are needed. Now, where is he?"

"He's in his office." Said Sentaro Kotsubaki, the male third seat.

"I see. Well, I'm going to put some clothes on, and then I'll be there, ok?"

"Right.... I'll let him know that your on your way!" shouted Kiyone. Not a few seconds after Akira shut her door, the two began to argue about who would tell Captain Ukitake first.

The lieutenant smiled as she shook her head and found a clean set of clothes. Whatever her captain wanted to see her about, she knew that she would be there before either of the third seats acutally informed him about her coming. Slipping Mayonaka on her shoulder, she left the room to find that she was indeed right. _I think I will love being here._


	3. Destined to Be a Great Day?

**Well, Its been a while since I've had any good ideas, and honestly, I'm unsure whether or not this idea will be any good at all... but I feel that I need to update **_**something**_**. Hopefully, you will enjoy this and not want to come and throttle me for the little amount of writing I actually did for the day...**

Akira smiled as she passed the two third seats arguing. She was starting to get used to their ways and knew that she might as well just go ahead to see Captain Ukitake and not worry about them. As far as her captain went, she was surprised to learn that he was in his office today. For most of the time that Akira had been a shinigami, she had never came to the thirteenth when he wasn't sick at home.

_Maybe he's there since its my first day. Once he knows that I'll be fine as his lieutenant, then he'll be able to rest soundly again._ The new lieutenant took a deep breath before she knocked on her captain's door.

There was a moments pause before she heard his tired voice call out, "Come in."

Opening the door, she was shocked at how _well_ Ukitake looked. Just the other day he had been coughing quite severly when he had informed her of her new position. _Just yesterday he was so sick... and now he looks as if he's not really sick at all. I wonder how he manages to do that. Maybe today is just destined to be a good day._ He gestured at a chair infront of his desk, and the young lieutenant took it without further ado. For the next few moments the two stared at each other.

"You needed me for something, Captain?" Akira asked once she had realized that Ukitake wasn't going to start.

Ukitake shook his head, stopping the starring contest and coming back to reality. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about your new responsiblities. As you may know, I am... not here most of the time, so it will be like you are both the captain and the lieutenant... If you ever need help, the rest of the division is at your command. But, none the less, you will probably spend more hours working than anyone else in any other division."

"I think I can handle that, Captain. I look forward to learning my way around here." Akira felt confident in her words, maybe having no social life would work out to her advantage afterall.

"I'm glad to hear that you feel up to the task. For the most part, the rest of the division should be able to accept you easliy, but there may be some who are not so sure. As you may also know... its been several years since we've had a lieutenant... things have been difficult since Kaien died."

"I remember Kaien.... he was a wonderful person."

"Other than that, your office is down the hall... I doubt that its been cleaned in those long years since Kaien's been gone, but I'm sure that you can ask some of the others to help you out... I'll send your paper work over in a few hours." Akira knew this tone of voice, it was very clearly a dismissal.

With a smile, she rose from her seat. "Thank you very much, Captain Ukitake, for giving me this chance. You don't have any idea how much this means to me."

Ukitake smiled as well and watched as his lieutenant opened the door. He added one last thing before he left her alone for the day, "If things here ever get out of hand and you need help, call on Captain Kyoraku or myself..."

"Thank you, Captain... I'll remember that." With another smile, Akira shut the door behind her.

_Now, its off to my office... I just hope I don't get lost on my way there._ There it was, though, right next to Ukitake's office. _Finally, somewhere I can go without having to worry about getting lost on my way there._

Taking a deep breath, the lieutenant opened the door to her new office. What she would find inside shocked her. _Holy Crap! This place is a mess!_ Strewn about the room were paper of all sorts, on the desk were some unidentifible objects that she was sure was making the smell that had nearly knocked her down, and covering all of it was a inch thick layer of dust.

"This has got to be worse than Matsumoto's office... and she rarely ever cleans it!" _Perhaps today won't be such a great day afterall..._


	4. Cleaning and Memories

**I have news! I'm thinking about starting a story about Izuru Kira. He's just so cute, like a puppy dog! So, there may be yet another story going up on here! Really, I need to learn how to finish stories before adding more... but that's always been a flaw of mine. **

**So, about this story....**

**I'm trying to make some more progress, but this chapter really is just going to focus on some of the past things that drove Akira to where she is. That and some cleaning... which I know sucks... I've been there and this is kinda how I act when that happens... I like to space out when there is something really awful to do- like cleaning... Infact, I have to go clean later... BUT as I know that you really don't care what I'm up to as long as there are new chapters... On with the story!**

"This is going to take forever to clean!" Shouted the new lieutenant as she slammed the door. Which she immediately regretted as the motion from the door caused the dust in the room to swirl into a giant choking cloud.

Stumbling through the dusty room, the lieutenant slammed into her desk as she tried in vain to figure out where the window was. She needed to let all of this dust out of the room... but she couldn't see. Just as she was about to give up, she found the lip of the window sill. With another cought, Akira managed to pry open the window.

Leaning out the window, panting in the clean air, Akira made a mental note to never again slam a door in a dusty room. Once the dust had begun to clear, she turned back into the room and sighed. _This is going to take forever. And by the end of this... I have a distinct feeling I'm going to want to kill someone. Hopefully I can take most of it out on Mayonaka during sparring... otherwise, I'll have to hide a body..._

Plopping herself down in a chair that she supposed was behind what was left of the desk, she began to hunt for a trash can. A few brusies and curse words later, she finally found it. _What would you know, its empty... so totally explains a lot. _

Much to Akira's surprise, she heard a knock on the door. _What the hell?_ "Come in?"

The door was pushed open- much slower than Akira had done earlier- and in peaked both of division thirteen's third seats. Akira waved them in and before they could close the door she shouted, "Don't slam the door! Last time I nearly choked to death on the dust..." Once they had shut the door just as slowly as they had opened it, Akira continued, "Is there something I can help you with?"

Kiyone looked a bit nervous but spoke up, "We were wondering if you could use any help in cleaning this place..."

Sentaro picked up where his companion left off, "Because its kinda our fault that it looks this bad..."

The new lieutentant raised an eyebrow. _They are the reason this place looks like hell? Wonderful.... I think I will put them to work then._ "Yes, I could use the help. If one of you would go get some garbage bags and a few brooms that would be helpful.... the other should go and get rubber gloves and a mop or two... and some strong disinfectant."

As the two scurried out of the office, Akira got back to searching for her desk. After moving what appeared to be several stacks of paper- empty paper to beat it all- she finally found that yes, this was her desk. _I think I miss my nice clean little office... no! Stop it! You know you promised to forget about it! No matter what happens, you are forbidden to think back on your Captain. KUSO! __Former__ Captain._

With a sigh, she realized that she really couldn't do much until she either had some garbage bags or at least rubber gloves. So she sat back down on the chair- which was less dusty than the rest of the room- and found herself thinking back... no matter how hard she had been trying to forget....

_The first day I met Captain Ichimaru was the day that I graduated the Academy. He was walking with his lieutenant and most of the other students seemed to be afraid of him. Maybe it was just because he was a Captain, but they seemed to be more frightened of him than most of the others... many of them fell to their knees just from his relaxed spiritual pressure. I had often considered many of my fellow students to be weaklings, but I hadn't expected this many of them to be so. I was one of the few left standing._

_It was at that moment, that he first looked at me. One of the only times he ever looked at me. I started to blush the instant our eyes met. That was the only thing that I regretted about our first meeting... I wish that I had been able to keep my composure a little better. But... I couldn't. After he saw me blush, he moved towards me, perhaps wondering how well I would do in his division- or wanting to see if it was him not Izuru who had made me blush.... I couldn't tell what he was thinking.... somethings would never change I guess._

_Once he was close enough for me to see his eyes, I think I gasped. They were the most beautiful blue color. His grin got ever wider and then he spoke to me. "What's your name?" The first words he ever said to me. Sometimes I wonder if he might have been purposefully forgetting my name ever after that... but the confusion on his face really tells a different story than what my heart wants to believe._

_I managed not to stutter as I told him my name, "Akira Shinobu, recently graduated from the Academy."_

_This would be the first time that I would wonder how he managed to grin as wide as he did. If a normal person had tried to match his grin, I'm pretty sure that their face would have broken. "How would you like to be a part of my division?"_

_I was speechless for a moment. Me? A member of his division? What could I say except... "Yes, Sir."_

_He looked towards his lieutenant, "Izuru, find her file and bring it to me." With that said, he began to leave the Academy grounds. Until he realized that neither Izuru or myself were following. "What are you two waiting on? I am leaving and since you are both in my division, that means that you are supposed to leave as well."_

_I remember blushing even worse at his tone and his words. I think Izuru blushed as well, but I couldn't see his face too well from the hair that he keeps infront of his face. Without another word, we both set off after Captain Ichimaru. What would have happened if I hadn't gone with him? Would I have been chosen for another division? I guess I'll never know._

"I was so foolish..." Akira sighed, closing her eyes.

"How were you foolish, Lieutenant Shinobu?" It was Kiyone's voice.

The lieutentant sighed once again, "Don't worry about it. It doesn't really matter anymore anyway. And Kiyone... you don't have to call me 'Lieutenant Shinobu'... call me Akira."

"R-right, Akira. I got the rubber gloves." The box of rubber gloves was set down upon the one empty spot on the desk. "The rest in is in the hall..."

"Thank you, Kiyone. This will help a great deal." As the two began to put the gloves on, Sentaro got back with the brooms and the garbage bags. "Ah, wonderful. Now we can get started."

For the next five hours, the three toiled away to remove the layers of dust and the unidentifiable remains of what they could only guess were half-eaten meals. It was a disgusting and gruelling job. At the end of those five hours, Akira thanked the two third seats for their massive amounts of help.

"But we're not finished yet!" Sentaro said, seeming rather unhappy.

"Its fine. All I have to do now is finish mopping and I'll be done. This place is usable again. I couldn't have done it without you two." With that, the new lieutenant managed to convince the two to leave and commenced with her mopping.

Once she was finished, she looked around. _This place isn't too bad anymore. It doesn't have that rancid smell and I can breathe without killing myself with the amount of dust. Tomorrow, I have to get to the new pile of paper work that Captain Ukitake sent me... Or should I do part of it now and have less to do tomorrow... hmm._

"You know what I think you should do, Akira?" Mayonka spoke up, cheerliy.

With a sigh, Akira answered, "No, what's that?"

"I think you should go play with me! There's still a few hours left today!"

"And if I work on the paperwork and get as much of it done today as I can, I can spend even more time 'playing' with you tomorrow."

There was a moment's pause as her zanpakuto thought it over. "That's true... do that." Mayonaka sounded as cheerful as ever, but Akira recognized the sadism that was underlying the tone.

"Wonderful. Back to work, then" Akira stretched and then spent five more hours on her paperwork. Much to her surprise, she managed to get it all finished and sorted. All she had to do now was drop it off at the First Divisioin. "Its only 6, they should still be here."

With a bit of balancing issues- including her almost dropping the whole stack several times- she managed to make it to the First Division by 7. She realized that she was being starred at by one of their seated officers, but she ignored them. Taking the pile of papers to Division 1's Lieutenant, she was pleased to see that he was just as busy as she was... though he was mainly sorting papers from other divisions after they had been turned in.

"Here ya go! Division 13's paperwork." He gestured it to an empty chair without looking up. "I wish ya the best of luck on sorting all of that." Akira said as she left the room.

Behind her, she heard a faint "Thanks, I'll need it."

Smiling, she managed to find her way back to her division- only getting lost once- and fell into bed for a well deserved rest.


End file.
